Leave and lies

So one in four Leave supporters now think that the Leave campaign mainly told them lies.

The public also didn’t get a historical perspective from our politicians. They weren’t told that since 2000 Britain’s success as a financial centre caused the pound to be overvalued, making exporting difficult. Is our industry too hollowed out to benefit from highly competitive trade deals? Many smaller and medium firms don’t export. Despite the recent huge fall in the pound, exports did not really increase. Ruth Davidson’s view is that industry and banking need government interference to promote long termism (instead of the rush for short term profits). So our industries don’t seem to be up to speed.

Neither were Leave voters told that if our tax take from banking and computer tech firms go down – because of loss of European investment and passporting – then the austerity programme the Conservatives claimed we needed to cope with huge debt and poor balance of trade will likely get much worse. Result – little money for industrial strategy or for the NHS. Stephen Hawking’s warning seems a far cry from the “£10bn for the NHS” promise. We have done things the wrong way round. We should have had an industrial strategy first, and left Europe second – provided an “honest” referendum had been won by Leave.

ANDREW VASS Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh